EIGHT

"Is she okay?"

Carlos Sainz found himself questioning in confusion, as he carefully entered the apartment of Mercedes Formula One driver George Russell.

His dark brown eyes fell on a small woman who was running around the apartment with a wet towel in her hand. She was chasing after the Russell boy, who had the brightest of smiles possible on his face.

"She's trying to whip him with a towel because he's learnt some Fillipino."

Charles Leclerc chuckled as he leant back against door, watching the chaos and madness unfold. His eyes sparkled as he watched on, a large grin at just how familiar it was.

It was like how it was before they lost Dakila.

"What did he say?" Carlos laughed, amazement filling him since he had no idea that the Villanueva girl had that much energy in her.

"From what I gathered, something about her mother." The Leclerc boy spoke to the Sainz man, informing him that their fellow driver had made a your mom joke in Tala's first language.

"Oh. She's gonna kill him." Carlos' eyes widened slightly, his lips moving in to a grin as he heard squeals coming from the Russell boy as he fled from her.

"I know."

Charles and Carlos exchanged a glance out of the corner of their eyes, their looks matching one another as they both turned back to watch the murder scene unfold in front of them.

They were Team Tala, for many reasons. One of which was because George was their rival. Another being, they liked Tala. Tala was one of Charles' best friends.

George Russell begged to be spared as he stumbled on to the carpeted floor beneath his feet, his hands shooting out in a defensive manoeuvre, giggles and laughs leaving his lips.

Tala Villanueva stood above the British boy with a soft glare, one that didn't hold any malice but only teasing, humor and smugness.

The towel was clutched so tightly within her grasp that her knuckles were almost white, the veins on her hand nearly popping out from gripping it so hard.

"Please forgive me!" George pleaded with her. "I'm too young to die! Not like this!"

Tala found her teeth grinding down against each other as her ears heard the words 'I'm too young to die' with the image of her brother invading her mind though she had to desperately force it away.

George released a high pitched scream which then was followed by his loud laugh as he found himself being hit with a towel to the side of his body, a burning feeling flooding through him.

Tala's hands shook slightly as she tried to keep her composure as cool and calm as possible, biting down on the inside of her cheek and accidentally drawing blood, making a metallic taste invade her mouth.

"That looked painful."

Charles and Carlos laughed together as they had watched the scene unfold, though the eyes of the Leclerc boy was just about able to pick up the slight shaking hands of his Fillipino friend.

His eyebrows furrowed slightly together, giving her a look of concern, his head moving up and down subtly as she moved hers to the side to signal that she was okay and that nothing was wrong.

"It was." George chuckled through the pain, since he knew that it was coming.

It was what he deserved after making a joke about Tala's mother, who had moved back to the Philippines just before Dakila died and had refused to come to his funeral.

Tala often mocked her mother so she didn't take offence to the joke, in fact it had been funny and surprisingly accurate, since she didn't have any contact with either of her parents.

If they refused to go to Dakila's funeral, that was fine. She wasn't bothered, as she lost her brother. She didn't care about losing her parents too because they never supported her brother in his choice of career.

They had never been to a single one of his races. Whereas she had gone all but one of them. They weren't their parents. They were simply donors who were no longer needed.

Their grandparents, more specifically, their grandfather was the only one who actually expressed sadness in his grandsons death, sending a bouquet of flowers filled with flowers that were specifically grown outside of the city of Manila were they had been born, since he was too frail to fly over to attend the funeral.

She wondered if he had passed away by now. He was a nice man. Too caring for his wife and his daughter as well as his son in law.

He had a lot of personality traits similar to that of Dakila.

"Don't make the jokes, if you can't take the punch line."

Tala wiggled her eyebrows up and down a couple of times, a gentle smile on her face that was only ever for George.

"Your punch lines are more murder lines!" George laughed as he slowly stood to his feet with the occasional wince invading his chiselled facial features.

"And that is what makes Tala, well Tala." Charles grinned as he moved to sit down on their sofa, since the scene was over and he no longer had any need of being a witness to a murder.

His smile softened as the small Villanueva girl jumped over the back of her sofa to sit beside him, resting her head on his shoulder, causing him to rest his head on top of hers.

The two of them laughed lightly as Carlos stood behind them, crouching down slightly so that he could rest his head on top of his team mates, in a teasing manner.

The Russell boy rolled the blue of his eyes as he too walked towards the trio, resting his head on top of the Spanish man, though by his forehead and not the side of his head like the others.

The four of them stayed there for a good couple of minutes, in an awkward silence since none of them wanted to be the first one to speak.

It almost became a challenge, to see who would be the first one to break and leave their little jenga of heads game that they had somehow created without even realising it.

"What the fu-"

Lewis Hamilton and Antonio Giovinazzi immediately burst in to laughter as they walked through the front door of the apartment belonging to the Russell boy and Villanueva girl, wheezes and screams erupting from them at the sight that was in front of them.

Tala Villanueva released a high pitched squeal as her eyes caught the figure of her favorite Italian Stallion, jumping up from her spot, accidentally ramming her head in to that of the Leclerc boys, to run to the long haired man.

"Jesus!"

Antonio braced himself as the Fillipino girl barrelled in to him, wrapping her arms around him tightly.

It raised eyebrows from the other men in the room, since she often wasn't a fan of hugs, especially in the last five and a half years or so since they had lost their friend.

The long haired man patted the top of her head before his chin rested on it, arms draping over he shoulders since it had been a long time that she had seen him.

Whilst he had raced in Formula One, it was not when she would attend races due to her grief, so he had not seen her in five years three months and twenty one days, to be exact.

But who was counting?

It was a shame, because he had missed her dearly, since she had been one of his best friend's during his time in Formula Three and Formula Two, but he would never blame her for not speaking to him, because nobody, especially Tala, should have been dealt with the blow of losing their brother.

"Hey Tal, long time no see, huh?"

Antonio spoke in a slightly muffled tone, a soft chuckle leaving his body as he watched her playfully flicking his long dark brown locks.

"Yeah I know. Where were you, dude? Turning water in to wine?" Tala wiggled her eyebrows up and down a couple of times in a teasing manner, since she often made jokes about him.

She had been told that he had long hair now, by Lewis, and she knew instantly that she would have to start calling him Jesus. Well, that or cockerspaniel.

"Getting my ass kicked, actually."

"Oh. That's nothing new, that's been happening since your first race."

Charles, Carlos, George and Lewis watched on with gleeful smiles on their faces as they took note at how their Tala was acting and behaving, seeming like a completely different person.

Carlos and Lewis didn't know her back then, but the other two did and they knew for a fact that it was good news and good progress that was happening before their eyes.

The old Tala Villanueva was coming back.

And they couldn't wait.

____________________________________________________

A/N

Kinda short, but here we go

What do you think?

I've created parents for Dakila and Tala... they will be making an appearance sometime within this book.

So please welcome Reggie Lee as Crisanto Villanueva and Angel Aquino as Sampaguita Villanueva

Anyway, I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you all soon for the next one,

I'm so proud of all of you, my loves

Love you all,

-RUBY